


Snapshot

by hikarimew



Category: Kagerou Project
Genre: Gen, Humor, dressing up, unseasonal christmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:54:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21923221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hikarimew/pseuds/hikarimew
Summary: For the Kagebros' Secret Santa 2019
Relationships: mekakushi dan - Relationship
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Snapshot

Shintaro had thought he knew heat. He was a person who wore hoodies at the height of summer, no matter how much the sun beat down on him. But this was a new level of torture. Kido was putting on makeup on his face, to help the itchy fake beard they’d procured last minute blend onto his face better.

He still failed to see why this was necessary. The woolen cap, the thick boots, the endless layers of padding to make him seem plump and jolly… Sure, he wore a lot of red, but since when did that make him a volunteer to play Santa Claus! Especially since, as he’d put it various times while being dragged around and coerced into this getup, “ _It’s the middle of August!”_

Mary fidgeted nervously as she helped get him dressed up. This had been her idea. All night, she couldn’t sleep. Her head had been filled with horrible, horrible nightmares, ( _everyone falling to pieces one by one_ ), and the summer heat had made her sheets and hair cling to her, suffocating, ( _her head was empty everything but pain had left as the snakes clung to her and gave her everything and nothing)_ and when she jolted awake, even if she couldn’t remember exactly the contents of what she’d seen, the feeling remained. 

There was no time. There was never enough time. Who knew if they could even stay together until the end of the year? School was going to start soon, and she could never go. Hibiya and Hiyori would go home, and everyone had their own things, and--

She’d brought up these concerns at breakfast, where everyone could see how badly she’d slept. No real point in hiding. But Kano had just laughed her off, and said that, if that was the problem, why not just start celebrating everything early? They could celebrate two, three holidays a day, get it done in a week! The idea was just like him. So they started making all the preparations for a year in fast forward…

“Konoha ate all the sweets I’d prepared for Halloween, so now it’s Christmas,” Kido explained, putting on the finishing touches on her masterpiece and snapping the fake beard onto Shintaro’s face, “so just manage to deliver the presents, please.”

Shintaro did not consider himself a fan of Christmas. It was a holiday for couples and little kids: It was very hard to be a part of the former group when you went years without leaving your house, and he hadn’t been a part of the latter for over a decade, now. He’d know it was that time when seeing the news online, but he hadn’t really participated in things for a while. And while the thought of a Christmas Party with the Dan had been nice, he’d expected to have a few more months to prepare himself mentally and spiritually.

“I’m not sure why you want _me_ to be Santa, I’m not a… Christmas person,” Shintaro tried to argue, but was stopped by the sight of Mary, who was passing him the giant bag of gifts everyone had scrapped up to put together while the costume team was working.

“I never really celebrated it before meeting everyone here, but you’ll like it!” she tried to motivate him. She had Santa in her books, but in the hundred winters she’d spent on her own, he’d never come to visit, not even once. Not like she had calendars to see exactly when it was December 25th, but snow would come, snow would go, and nobody ever came to her door.

“Well, it would be hard to celebrate Christmas when you lived in the middle of the woods!” Kano had returned, having successfully acquired enough buckets of fried chicken to feed a small army downtown. “His reindeer can’t speak Japanese! And it’s not like he had a Seto Elf with him to translate what the native moose around your house said to ask for directions!”

“Seto _would_ make a good elf...” Kido acquiesced after some thought, no doubt imagining his normal green jumpsuit, but with one of those stripy hats on top. Actually, she was pretty sure she could make that before Seto came home from one of his part time jobs. Especially since Shintaro was done, she’d be free to do that as soon as she finished pushing him into the living room, where the others were waiting.

The tree was a potted plant from the porch, decorated with the flowers Mary made part-time, since the actual Christmas decorations didn’t stay at the hideout, but the walls were plastered with snowflakes made from colored paper. Hibiya was sticking the last few on high locations, sitting on Konoha's shoulders to do so. Momo still had some bits of paper lost in her hair, and, just a little, made it look like snow.

But all eyes were on Shintaro, and the weight of their gazes and expectations on him worked better than an eye power that magically shut your mouth. _‘Merry Christmas!”,_ that was all he had to say, just those two simple words, but he couldn't get them out. His lips twitched, his teeth chattered, and he knew he was making a weird face.

“Me-Me-Mary--”

  
“Merry Christmas! Ho, ho, ho!”

Everyone whipped around at the new voice nailing Shintaro’s line, looking at the other end of the room. Standing in front of the front door was Santa Claus. A perfect, picturesque Santa Claus, looking like he stepped out of a magazine. He seemed to scream Christmas, from the golden rims on his classes to his shiny belt buckle, to the smile lines around his face. It was a gorgeous, momentary illusion, as Kano dropped his ability after the first stunned second had passed.  
  
“And _that’s_ how you should have done it, Shintaro!”

…

A moment of thought.

“Wait. Why am I in this costume if Kano can do that? This isn’t fair!” Shintaro’s protests were drowned out by the giggling of his friends and the sound of camera shutters going off. Even if they couldn’t be together forever, there would still be moments like these, captured forever in their hearts, that nothing could ever erase.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to add a joke on how KFC is easier to find when you're not fighting all of Japan for it but I couldn't fit it in...


End file.
